25 Hainan gibbons, Nomascus hainanus, are left in a small patch of rainforest on Hainan island in south China. Their numbers and range dwindled so much last century due to human development that there are fears they could be the first ape species to go extinct because of people.
But experts at the Zoological Society of London believe that with large scale funding the last few Hainan gibbons could not only be saved but helped to expand and recover their former territories.
Artificial canopy bridges are just one of 44 proposed actions in a plan published on Tuesday on how to help the primates, which are agile and fast in the treetops but slow and vulnerable to predators when forced down to ground level.